Empire by David Parkinson

Unstintingly raw and cynical, this disconcerting and deeply affecting State Of The Union treatise regularly comes dangerously close to caricature.

Premiere by Glenn Kenny

Anybody can make a movie that's anti-slavery. But to make a movie that's explicitly anti-democracy-that's something.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

I wouldn't go so far as to claim Manderlay is fun to watch. Von Trier, who can made compulsively watchable films ("Breaking the Waves"), has found a style that will alienate most audiences. Maybe it's necessary.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

The acting has the bravura stage eloquence of Broadway Shakespeare and the movie is narrated, beautifully, by John Hurt.

Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

One of the best things about real Americans is that we can stand criticism. Informed or idiotic, scholarly or superficial, it's all welcome.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

To warm to Manderlay, the chilly second installment of Lars von Trier's not-yet-finished three-part Brechtian allegory examining United States history, you must be willing to tolerate the derision and moral arrogance of a snide European intellectual thumbing his nose at American barbarism.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

Lars von Trier is back, so to speak--he's never visited the States, which makes his snide anti-American allegories even more infuriating to some….But the story holds up well enough to deliver a pointed critique of establishing self-rule at gunpoint.

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

To state the obvious, Manderlay is often patently offensive in its racial politics, and it surely isn't for everyone. It is, however, very funny, very dark and very skillfully played.

L.A. Weekly by Scott Foundas

It's true, of course, that Trier still hasn't set foot on U.S. soil, but it may be that he sees us, in all our virtue and victimhood, that much more clearly for it.

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

It's an extremely cynical perspective, enforced by some disappointingly turgid melodrama, but keep in mind, this movie was made before an almost uniformly poor and black population was left to rot in New Orleans floodwaters. Even at his worst, von Trier can still strike a nerve.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Howard struggles with the role Kidman nailed. And the graphic nude scene in which "proudy slave" Timothy (Isaach De Bankole) puts a towel over Grace's head before ravishing her pale body is as rugged on the audience as it is on the actors.

Film Threat

If you hated "Dogville" because of the overage of narration or the length of time it took to finally get to a point, you'll be pleased to know that von Trier has lessened both those elements. With that said, it still has some of the same flaws.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

The film's conceits grow thin and von Trier's mocking, hectoring tone tiresome.

Variety by Todd McCarthy

The subject being race relations, Manderlay is bound to stir considerable debate in intellectual circles, but given the director's abstract style and use of characters to enact an agenda, it's a discussion that will exclude the general public, who will ignore it as they did "Dogville."

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

Nothing von Trier presents here, whether real or imagined, is fresh or new.

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

All of this plays out as flat, didactic, and lazy.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

Another ridiculous anti-American screed by the minimalist Danish director Lars von Trier, who has never set foot in this country.